According to a Washington Post report, failed U.S. Senate candidate Robert Francis “Beto” O’Rourke, who is mulling a 2020 presidential run, met with former president Barack H. Obama recently in Washington.

“The meeting, which was held Nov. 16 at the former president’s offices in Foggy Bottom, came as former Obama aides have encouraged the Democratic House member to run, seeing him as capable of the same kind of inspirational campaign that caught fire in the 2008 presidential election,” the report said.

According to the report, O’Rourke, who passed himself off as a Latino populist, despite the fact he is Irish and his father-in-law is a billionaire, is being trailed by TMZ and is inundated with phone calls from Democratic operatives who are encouraging him to run and vying for a job on his potential campaign. O’Rourke has said that he is discussing a potential run with his family.

“Obama’s stated mission has been to build a new generation of Democratic leaders, and two weeks ago he said that O’Rourke, who is 46, reminded him of himself,” the report said. “The three-term congressman, he said, was one of the rare politicians who can connect with a wide swath of the electorate in an increasingly siloed country.”

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Obama has reportedly met with other potential 2020 candidates including Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.). Big League Politics reported Tuesday that a Harvard poll had O’Rourke polling at 7 percent, behind only Sanders (21 percent) and former Vice President Joe Biden (28 percent).

One of O’Rourke’s potential 2020 competitors, huckster attorney Michael Avenatti, announced Tuesday that he will not seek election to the nation’s highest office, citing his “respect for his family.”

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